Kalappa Bopanna I, Tzounopoulos Thanos
Departments of Otolaryngology and Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh , Pittsburgh, PA 15261.
eNeuro. 2017 Mar 3;4(1). doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0011-17.2017. eCollection 2017 Jan-Feb.
Synaptically released zinc inhibits baseline excitatory neurotransmission; however, the role of this neuromodulator on short-term plasticity during different levels of synaptic activity remains largely unknown. This lack of knowledge prevents our understanding of information transfer across zinc-releasing synapses, including 50% of excitatory synapses in cortical areas. We used electrophysiology in mouse brain slices and discovered that the effects of zinc on excitatory postsynaptic current (EPSC) amplitudes are context-dependent. At lower frequencies of activity, synaptically released zinc reduces EPSC amplitudes. In contrast, at higher stimulation frequencies and vesicular release probability (Pr), zinc inhibits EPSC amplitudes during the first few stimuli but leads to enhanced steady-state EPSC amplitudes during subsequent stimuli. This paradoxical enhancement is due to zinc-dependent potentiation of synaptic facilitation via the recruitment of endocannabinoid signaling. Together, these findings demonstrate that synaptically released zinc is a modulator of excitatory short-term plasticity, which shapes information transfer among excitatory synapses.
突触释放的锌抑制基线兴奋性神经传递;然而,这种神经调质在不同水平的突触活动期间对短期可塑性的作用仍 largely 未知。这种知识的缺乏阻碍了我们对跨锌释放突触的信息传递的理解,包括皮质区域中 50% 的兴奋性突触。我们在小鼠脑片中使用电生理学方法,发现锌对兴奋性突触后电流 (EPSC) 幅度的影响取决于上下文。在较低的活动频率下,突触释放的锌会降低 EPSC 幅度。相反,在较高的刺激频率和囊泡释放概率 (Pr) 下,锌在最初几次刺激期间抑制 EPSC 幅度,但在随后的刺激期间导致稳态 EPSC 幅度增强。这种矛盾的增强是由于通过招募内源性大麻素信号通路,锌依赖性增强了突触易化作用。总之,这些发现表明,突触释放的锌是兴奋性短期可塑性的调节剂,它塑造了兴奋性突触之间的信息传递。